Alarm goes off. Hit snooze. Alarm goes off. Begrudgingly get up. Rush to get out the door. Go to work. Run errands. Get home. Care for dependents (pets or children). Do chores. Make dinner. Eat dinner. Watch two tv shows. Catch up on the internet. Go to bed.
Sound too familiar?
It’s amazing how quickly weeks can fly by with this day on repeat without even thinking about it. Life can be a blur all around us. If we don’t take time to stop, it becomes a meaningless race to get the next thing done, finish the day, and live for the weekend. As a Christian, how do we look any different than the world around us if we are living this way? The hard truth is that this glorification of busyness is not a reflection of Christ.
We were reminded at church this past weekend that our ministry to others is lived out in everyday actions, not just the planned out activities and trips that include the word “mission”. How do we make sure that we are ministering to others by showing the love of Christ every day then? We ask the fantastically stereotypical question, “WWJD?” What would Jesus do? (Come on now, you know you probably still have one of those bracelets from elementary Sunday school somewhere.) We are so relieved to know that Luke 5:15-16 tells us exactly what Jesus would do.
“But the news about Him was spreading even farther, and large crowds were gathering to hear Him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray.“
If Jesus, our Savior, the Lord of Lords had to “often slip away” to get time by himself to think and pray, even when there where people who needed him, how much more do we need to make sure we are doing the same thing?!
In this fast paced world, we have learned the importance of taking time to spend with loved ones, rest, think, and above all else, pray without distraction. We so look forward to doing ministry on the World Race, but we know that we need to make sure we focus on the here and now. In order to best take care of those around us, we need to often take time to take care of ourselves. This past Sunday we realized that we needed to do just that, so we took what we like to call a “pretend vacation day”. We spent time with friends, rested, prayed, and enjoyed going out to eat and walking around downtown Chattanooga with our dog.
Giving ourselves a chance to stop being busy allows us time to think about how we can shift our focus from the monotony of every day to the ministry of every day.
We can’t wait to minister to the missionaries we will be working with while on the World Race by giving them the much needed time they need to take care of themselves. One of our favorite stories is that of a man who had been on the mission field for quite some time finally understanding the Biblical importance of making this rest time a priority. His revelation is a great reminder to us all…
“We need to hurry up and slow down!”
